“What makes Steinmetz an incredible bookmaker is his ability to almost weave a narrative out of several disparate elements without ever giving into the formal engagement of authorship in the literal sense to create a unified and cohesive story line. He eschews the forced conventions of plots, narratives and suggestive storytelling while building his story arc(s) in different directions all under the guise of a beautiful sentiment or emotion. It leaves the characters, the images and fittingly so, the book to remain limber and in a state of open possibility. There is often a nod to the sentimental - a word that we feel so dispassionate about these days, not unlike romantic.”

Mark Steinmetz works in a venerable tradition of photographic prowling that bets everything on the ordinary. Each picture is the fruit of an unplanned encounter: Though the photographer may know more or less where he is going, he can’t know precisely what he will find. An accumulation of these improvised perceptions can make both a world and a way of looking at it. Superior craft need not play a role in this achievement, but in Steinmetz’s case it does. The precision with which his pictures render a wisp of hair, or a wrinkle of cloth, or the golden light (in black-and-white!) is at once a vehicle of careful observation and a metaphor for patient attention. It lends an aura of delicacy to the scenes without figures, of which there are quite a few for a photographer who is so frankly devoted to people. It’s tempting to say that Steinmetz’s places have personalities.

Peter Galassi

“I want to show something of people’s inner lives. I think for portraiture you have to be completely certain that you are interested in photographing this or that person. You can’t be wishy-washy in your motivation. You just have to know that you want to photograph this person and it’s a kind of knowing that eradicates any asking of “why?” My approach is fairly low-key. I don’t want to make waves. I’ll just ask something like “Can I photograph you as you are?” Sometimes I’ll give a little direction like “look over that way” but it’s never elaborate. Having an ability to focus and concentrate is necessary for making good portraits.”